To get to the Victoria Highway that takes you to WA, you have to head west from Katherine. Darwin is way more north than you think. The whole Kimberley is further south than Darwin. So back to Katherine we go – along with the entire travelling population. The Cars Towing Anything car park in Katherine is a sight to behold. So we joined the crowds of Nomads in their caravans/motorhomes/fifth wheelers and Europeans in their Britz/Apollo/Maui Campers and did our chores in “town” before heading for new frontiers in the west.
The landscape around Victoria Highway (you’ll note – nowhere near Victoria) soon changes to rugged cattle country, with extensive escarpments of red, craggy outcrops, well treed, but with little undergrowth.

We stopped just west of Victoria Downs Roadhouse to do a short walk and started chatting with some Nomads who had also stopped for lunch there. It was MY turn to meet someone we know. Turns out this lovely couple was from Torquay and used to be my customers at Torquay Pharmacy. Small world indeed. John has already run into people he knows: we saw two competitors from the Alice Springs event in Kakadu, and then he also ran into (and then had a morning MTB ride with) two other riders from the same race in Darwin one morning.
But back to the walk! It was at Joe’s Creek and took us right to the base of the escarpment. The view from there was like an amphitheatre of red rock surrounding the valley below where the wet season would see the Joe’s Creek run.
Here’s a great view looking through the palms:

 The palms above us constantly rustled in the breeze, and we kept looking behind thinking someone was there.